1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dubbing apparatus for recording a signal reproduced from a recording medium on an optical disc. More particularly, the invention relates to an optical disc dubbing apparatus capable of automatically recording additional information of each musical program, capable of resuming the record operation even if an unrecorded area of an optical disc becomes absent, by erasing the already recorded track area, and capable of recording the track numbers of musical programs in the order different from the order of the reproduced musical programs.
2. Related Background Art
There is known a mini-disc (MD) which is an optical disc in which a user can write data. A mini-disc is formed with a pit information record area at the central area of the disc and a recordable area at the outer area. The recordable area includes a user's TOC (Table of Contents) area (U-TOC) and a program area. The recordable area has no pit, but a groove is engraved for the guidance to tracks. Information is recorded in the recordable area along the groove.
The groove sways like wobble. The rotation of the disc is controlled by a signal having an average frequency of 22.05 kHz and generated based on the wobble. Absolute addresses relative to the record start position are FM-modulated and recorded in the wobble.
Data record is achieved by magnetizing a magnetic film. Namely, the magnetic film is heated to a Curie point or higher by a laser spot while applying a magnetic field which reverses its polarity depending upon an input signal. The signal is therefore recorded in the magnetic film as a change in the magnetization direction. Such data record can be performed even on an already recorded area, i.e., data overwrite is possible.
The record position is managed by the information recorded in U-TOC. Recorded in the program area is information including a start time, end time, title, and the like for each track number (TNO) which is a natural number beginning with "1" and assigned to each musical program. If TNO and its additional information are erased from U-TOC, the corresponding recordable area is handled as an unrecorded area.
When an MD disc is loaded on an optical disc player, U-TOC information recorded in the MD disc is read and copied to a RAM. Thereafter, data recording/reproducing is managed by the U-TOC information stored in RAM. Each time a musical program is recorded or erased, the contents of RAM are updated and recorded in U-TOC before the disc is unloaded from the apparatus.
In erasing a musical program recorded in such a mini-disc, TNO of the program is keyed in to display it on a display screen and an erase key is depressed to delete TNO information from U-TOC area.
In dubbing the contents of an optical disc to a mini-disc, a voice output terminal of an optical disc driver is connected to a voice input terminal of a min-disc record/reproduction apparatus, and each musical program is recorded on a target mini-disc while reproducing each musical program from a source optical disc. However, additional information such as the title of each musical program recorded in the source optical disc cannot be recorded because the voice signal does not contain the additional information.
Moreover, if the unrecorded area of a mini-disc becomes absent during the record operation, the record operation is stopped once and thereafter, the already recorded area of the mini-disc is erased to resume the record operation. In this case, however, the record state becomes discontinuous at the record area where the record operation was stopped.
Furthermore, the mini-disc record/reproduction apparatus adds track numbers in the order of reproduced musical programs. It is therefore impossible to assign desired track numbers in the order different from that of reproduced musical programs.